THE NESTING HABITS OF THE HERMIT THRUSH 

 Eylocichla guttata pallasi (Cab.) IN NORTHERN 



MICHIGAN LIBRARY 



By Dayton Stoner new yc^k 



INTRODUCTION oak^^- 



The data which serve as a basis for this paper were obtained 

 at the University of Michigan Biological Station on Douglas 

 Lake while the writer was a member of the station staff. Ob- 

 servations were made during the latter part of July and the 

 first few days of August, 1919. In addition to the writer's own 

 observations and notes, the assistance of the members of the 

 class in ornithology was requisitioned. Several other members 

 of the camp also very kindly rendered service in various ways. 

 To all of these obligation is gratefully acknowledged. 



The Douglas Lake region lies in the extreme northern part 

 of the southern peninsula of Michigan about seventeen miles 

 from Lake Huron on the east, the Straits of Mackinac on the 

 north and Lake Michigan on the west. The soil is exceedingly 

 sandy. The topography is strongly rolling and was formerly 

 covered by hardwoods and conifers but large areas have been 

 cut over and burned over so that little of the original forest 

 now remains. There are numerous lakes in the region of Doug- 

 las Lake which is about two hundred feet above sea level and 

 some two and one-half miles wide by four miles long; its great- 

 est depth is about ninety feet. Its shores are variable as to 

 height and slope but are everywhere wooded. 



Near the Biological Station camp on the east side of the lake 

 where the following observations were made, the shores are low 

 and gradually receding with a long, clean, sandy beach. Con- 

 ifers, maples, birches and aspens, mostly second growth, are 

 found though not in abundance. Blueberry bushes and brake 

 fern make up the characteristic smaller vegetation. 



Naturally such situations afford unusual inducements for 

 nesting birds of various species. Here song sparrows, oven- 

 birds, slate-colored juncos, towhees, red-eyed vireos, cedar wax- 

 es) 



